3 things you must know this week…

1) On Thursday, the United States Senate voted to begin debating legislation to curb gun violence. The vote, which overcame a Republican filibuster threat, passed 68-31. The motion came after Senators from each side reached a compromise on broadening background checks to include private purchases at guns shows and on the internet on Wednesday. While no way a guaranteed passage of gun measure, the vote clears the way for debate on a package of proposals, including the controversial ban on semiautomatic firearms and limit on ammunition magazines, sought by President Obama in the aftermath of the Connecticut school massacre. The debates will begin next week.

2) According to a new assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, North Korea likely has a nuclear weapon small enough to be delivered by a ballistic missile, though its reliability will be low. The development comes amid heightened tensions across the Korean Peninsula. In the past few weeks, North Korea has made many threats, including that of a possible nuclear strike, against the United States and South Korea. Experts believe that the report’s conclusions help explain why Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has announced in recent weeks that the Pentagon was bolstering long-range antimissile defenses designed to protect the Western Coast of the United States.

3) The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) – al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq – acknowledged on Tuesday that they had assisted in founding Syrian jihadi group, Jabhat al-Nursa,  and that the two groups will now function under the single name of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIGS). The significance and potential consequences of this union have yet to fully develop, but the formal recognition of a connection to al-Qaeda will likely further prevent international military assistance to the Syrian rebels. Tamer Mouhieddine, spokesperson for the Syrian Free Army – made up of defected soldiers – said the announcement would not change his group’s support of al Nursa: “The rebels in Syria have one common enemy – Bashar Assad – and they will collaborate with any faction allowing them to topple his regime.”

Image courtesy of news.com.au